


Otherwise Engaged

by HookedonCS



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 12:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2025684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HookedonCS/pseuds/HookedonCS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt, anonymous said:<br/>Emma had to use Killian's computer and sees that Killian was looking up engagement ring pics online</p>
            </blockquote>





	Otherwise Engaged

“Seriously?” Emma huffed, looking down at the phone and seeing that the battery really was about to die. “Perfect timing.”

Because upon entering Killian’s apartment, she had found it completely empty. A trip wasted, especially now that she had put off her work and would be paying the price for it.

She wouldn’t be able to send the email to David of the file of the case he needed. There was absolutely no time to access the file from her phone and get it to him with the little battery power she had left. She didn’t even think to bring her charger with her over to Killian’s. Even if David wouldn’t be upset, she’d feel like a complete failure for not putting her job above personal business.

Maybe Killian had his somewhere…

The phone vibrated in her hand. It wasn’t shutting off- which she knew that it would in only the matter of minutes. It was a text from him.

_Where are you? ___

Didn’t he know? The screen was dark, so she replied quickly.

_I’m at your place. Do you have a charger here? My phone is going to die. Where are you? ___

Emma continued to walk through the room, searching the sockets for a possible charger. The living room turned up nothing. Maybe the bedroom…

The phone vibrated again while heading that way.

_I am on my way. ___

Emma slid the nearly dead phone into her back pocket, not taking the time to send a simple reply back. If he was on his way back then she would have to wait.

Entering into the bedroom, she paused in her search. She didn’t find the phone charger, but still had hit pay dirt. Killian’s laptop was sitting neatly on the dresser, just waiting for her. It was just as convenient to send the email to David.

The computer was already turned on, she found out when she swiped her fingers across the mouse. But… for some reason… hmm… the password had been changed?

Emma keyed in the code that had been the password for months, since she’d gotten the computer for him. And yet now, it wasn’t working.

She stepped back from the dresser, staring confusedly at the screen and the message indicating an invalid passcode being entered.

Slowly, she pulled the phone back out of her pocket. There was no time, looking at the darkened screen, for her to text and wait for a response. Instead, she dialed his number, hoping he would pick up sooner rather than later.

“Emma?”

“Hey. Did you… change the password to the laptop?”

“The laptop’s password was changed, yes. Why did you want to know?”

“I need to send an email to David,” she told him slowly. She shook her head in confusion. “Why did you change it?” She didn’t have time for the questioning, she realized. “Do you mind letting me know what it is? My phone is going to die any second.”

There was a slight pause from Killian’s end. “Actually, Emma… I cannot remember if…”

“You forgot the password?”

“No, it’s not that,” he murmured. There was another long pause. “It’s…” She could hear the internal battle he was having with himself about giving her the code. “It’s ‘forever.’”

“’Forever?’” Emma leaned over the computer and began to type the odd password. “Why?”

“I don’t think I… No, Emma, wait!” Killian warning came out frantically.

“Killian, I’m just going to email David,” she told him with a frown. 

“Don’t use the computer! I’ll be…”

Before he could finish his warning to her, Emma heard the ringtone signaling that the phone was now shutting. She only gave it a cursory glance before stuffing it into her back pocket. Her focus was clearly on computer in front of her and the task at hand. Why was Killian so adamant about her not using it all of a sudden? His own knowledge of the workings of the machine was still limited. So what possible reason could he have for not wanting her to see?

Curiosity was almost too much for her. She definitely understood about personal privacy. She absolutely wanted to respect Killian’s space and his plea. Then again, what could he possibly have to hide, and was it so important that she should wait? The email needed to be sent. 

He’d get over it, she thought as she grabbed up the computer from its resting place. She took it over to the bed where she sat down on the very edge. Placing the computer right beside her, she angles herself into a comfortable enough position. “Forever,” Emma murmured to herself. It was such an odd password. But she typed it into the computer.

It opened into the last word document that Killian had been using. Was that what he didn’t want her to see? Emma didn’t bother reading anything in the document. It was none of her business as to what he was dabbling in. What mattered was getting the email sent out to David as soon as possible.

Emma moved the cursor over to click onto the web browser. The page opened instantly and…

Her fingertips yanked back from the computer as if it had burned her. She was even sure that the tingle at the tips had been imaginary. Her eyes widened as she tried to process what she was actually seeing in front of her. She then realized that she couldn’t process it. Jumping up from the bed, it didn’t even matter that the laptop hung precariously from the edge of the bed.

“What the…” 

It wasn’t the word document that Killian had recalled belatedly. She knew that it was the images in front of her right then.

There were almost two dozen pictures of engagement rings in front of her. She knew that all she would have to do is continue to scroll down to find dozens more beneath those.

Emma’s mouth felt instantly dry. She couldn’t focus on just one of those images. There were so many, all leaving her heady by connecting the dots of what all this meant.

She fell onto her knees in front of the screen; her eyes drew upon the search bar. He had decided to focus on the princess cut diamond engagement rings. How befitting. “What the…” 

Ok, so Killian hadn’t meant for her to see any of this. But she had seen, and she didn’t know how to undo what she did.

They hadn’t talked about marriage or engagements. It had never come up in the entire time that they had been together. Because ten months was not a long enough time to think engagement and marriage and babies and forever…

Emma brought her hand down forcefully onto the laptop to shut it closed. She pushed it further back on the bed, unable to even look at it at the moment. And even if it had not been his words, the simple action of hunting out engagement rings had been enough to downright unnerve Emma to her core.

****

She was on the other side of the door. That fact was what kept Killian from doing more than holding the key in the keyhole. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to confront what was on the other side.

He knew Emma. He knew that she had not heeded his words and left the computer sitting happily alone on the dresser where he left it. He knew that she had had an agenda that he was only a small yet unimportant obstacle standing in her way.

Yes, Killian had hesitated. He had tried to remember exactly where he had left off when he stepped away from the computer. He was certain that he had not been looking at rings at that time. So he had tentatively given her the new password. Even if the whole point of changing his password was to prevent her from receiving access. But Emma had been in a bind. She needed to use the computer. And he had _not _been looking at rings the last time he’d used it.__

No, he had not been looking at rings the last time he’d used the computer. But he had been looking at them the last time he had used the internet. Emma would be using the internet when she emailed David. She would have seen.

Standing in front of the door to his own home, he knew that she was on the other side and full of knowledge of his previous thoughts.

Emma would want to bail. She would freak out and think that it was too soon. She would pull away from him. 

Or would she? Because she was on the other side of that door. She had not left yet. She had not pulled away so fast that she had walked out on him before he even had a chance to explain.

Killian wanted to pull his key out of the keyhole. He wanted to be the one to run. He also wanted to be completely wrong and have her run into his arms and say yes.

With a ragged breath, he did the only thing he knew he could in this situation.

Turning the key to unlock the door, he pushed it open gently, and cautiously entered.

****

“Hello.” It was a stare-off. Who would speak first beyond the initial greeting? Apparently, they both had an inkling of what the other one was thinking. That didn’t seem to make the moment any easier.

Killian shut the door from behind him, but eyes never moving from her.

Emma stood some feet away, hands stuffed in her back pockets, and looking rigid as ever.

In reality, it had been a fairly short amount of time since Emma had last talked to Killian on the phone. Her head and her heart interpreted it in a whole other timeframe.

Did she stay and face him or did she slink out of the apartment and block out everything that had happened? How simple was either of those choices? No so much when her mind was left to fester and ponder the meaning of the web search.

Killian cleared his throat. There was a slight raise of his eyebrows and his hand reached out towards her.

“Did you have the opportunity to reach David?”

Emma gave a single nod of her head. The urge to look away from him to hold and she focused on a spot behind him.

“Were you… still in need of charging your phone?” He was nervous; she could hear it in his voice. “I brought the charger back… for you.” Suddenly she saw that, looking back at him, he was moving towards her.

The step back was instinctive and not planned. But it stopped Killian in his tracks. He paused, no longer moving from where she stood.

“Emma.”

“I used your laptop,” she informed him, staring right into those eyes.

“And… you saw.”

“I saw.”

He looked defeated, his head slightly bowed and his arms hanging listlessly at his sides.

“Emma.”

“Killian.”

His face was a portrait of constraint. His lips thinned in a somber line, his chin rose a scant inch or two, and his eyes squinted in worry.

“I was only curious to see what this realm considered as sufficient tokens of betrothals.”

Emma pulled her hands out of her pockets. The dampness had overpowered her and made the situation all the worse.

“Do people do that where you’re from even when the thought of… engagement is not even a real prospect?”

She saw the visible swallow of uncomfortableness.

“This… us… it hasn’t even been a year yet.”

“Silly time constraints this world is so fond of,” Killian murmured softly, his eyes narrowing farther on her. He took a cautious step forward.

Emma didn’t move. She only watched as that one step became one more step and then another, bringing him all the closer to her. 

“Silly is one way to look at it,” she told him softly. Her arms folded over her chest tightly. Because during that long wait between finding the images on the laptop and the time he walked through that door, Emma’s thoughts had wavered back and forth before finally settling on a conclusion.

She shrugged lightly. “How would you ask?”

Killian took one last step, bringing him right in front of her. His hand dragged over his mouth as he stared at her inconspicuously. 

“Ask me.”

She knew she had caught him off guard. Pulling his hand from his face left his mouth hanging open and he shuffled nervously from foot to foot.

“Why would I do that? I… I don’t… even have the ring.” Killian’s eyes grew wide with some wild disbelief while watching her. “ _The _ring? A ring.”__

Emma shrugged. “Ask me anyway. Right now.” Because it had to be right now. The butterflies that started out as those little pretty cabbage white ones and had turned into fully grown monarchs in her stomach, fighting for room to flap in a cramped space.

Killian, himself, looked bewildered by her request. Toes danced in front of her and she saw the sheen of perspiration beginning to form on his forehead.

“Emma.”

Her fingers threaded through her hair as she sighed. “On your knee, Captain.”

He hesitated for a long moment, staring at her still in a dazed awe.

“What are you…” Killian paused, slowly lowering himself down on one knee in front of him. Shaking his head, he reached for her left hand. He stayed quiet, looking down at that hand.

What came after monarchs, because they were getting bigger…

“Emma, I love you more and more with each growing day.” He finally looked back up at her, tears shimmering and making his eyes glow. “There’s not a moment I want to live my life without you being by my side. No matter if it’s physically or spiritually. You have been the greatest accomplishment in my devastatingly long and harried life.” His tongue poked out of his mouth, licking at his bottom lip. “Emma, will you marry me?” And then he stayed there, wrecked by the whole ordeal.

Emma tightened her hand around his. Her sigh was soft, but she could now breathe. And she noticed how long she had been quiet. 

“Yes,” she whispered.

“What?” Those brows furrowed together in consternation and disbelief. Her body gave up trying to stand upright. She fell down on top of his knew and her arms were thrown around his neck. 

Killian held her tight around her waist.

“What? Did you…”

“I answered yes,” Emma confirmed softly. “I’ll marry you.” 

“Emma.” His lips slid over her cheek, peppering kisses everywhere until his made contact with hers. “Emma.” 

She kissed him back, feeling the butterflies drift away, feeling that this was the most right thing in the world. 

“I love you, Killian.” She pulled back to look him in the eyes. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Emma.” He shook his head. “This isn’t at all what I envisioned. I wasn’t going to ask you like this. Without the ring. Without some romantic setting befitting the occasion. It should have been special, love. I’m sorry.”

Emma shrugged. “It was perfect.” She smiled slowly. “Circumstances granted. I looked when you told me not to.”

“Aye, that you did. But I expected as much.” He was watching her closely. “Not so much the outcome of the events. You understand?”

And she did, because there was a time when it wouldn’t have been like this.

“I understand.”

Killian smiled. “You’ll be my wife.”

“Emma Jones. It has a nice ring to it.” Her eyes grew wide. “Speaking of which…” She held up her bare left hand.

His smile turned into a grin. “Aye. A remedy that must be taken care of. And it will. Did you see anything you liked?”

Emma stood up from her seat on his knee. “Actually, I did.” She waited for him to stand up beside her. “Come on. I’ll show you the finalists.”


End file.
